Editorial: Access to justice

The Peninsula has a new federal courthouse. Now it should have federal court.

November 08, 2010

We were right about this: The antiquated and deteriorating conditions at the old federal courthouse on 25th Street in Newport News were part of the rationale for moving court staff over to Norfolk.

In May 2002, we bemoaned on this page the fact that the sorry old courthouse was one reason why people on the Peninsula and Middle Peninsula were deprived of convenient access to justice.

In April 2003, the announcement that the feds had started work on a new courthouse in Newport News led us to hope, on this page, that "justice — federal style — will be returning to the Peninsula."

We were wrong about that. The courthouse came. The court didn't.

As detailed by Peter Dujardin in the Oct. 31 and Nov. 6 Daily Press, the new federal courthouse for the Newport News division — which has jurisdiction over Newport News, Hampton, Poquoson, Williamsburg, and York, James City, Gloucester and Mathews counties — is a lonely place. Lovely, but lonely.

Built with all the security and space a busy federal docket needs, it has two courtrooms, so potentially, 42 court days per month (figuring 21 weekdays in the average month). Five are used for hearing misdemeanor offenses on federal property, including military bases, and parole violations. Bankruptcy court meets two days a month and grand juries on three days. But for 32 of those 42 available court days, the courtrooms are nearly always silent.

A total of 213 hearings were held in the 61 felony cases filed in the Newport News division in the first three months of this year. Eight were held in Newport News, the rest in Norfolk.

The United States District Court for Eastern Virginia, which handles violations of federal law and bankruptcies, has four divisions. The Alexandria and Richmond units have their own courthouses and judges. So does the Norfolk division, with 10 judges and magistrates based at the (old) courthouse on Granby Street. The Newport News division has a new building, but not a single judge or magistrate assigned to it.

The Newport News division has a legal status equal to the Richmond, Northern Virginia and Norfolk divisions. But it is treated like a step-child.

Instead of using the new courthouse that opened in 2008, everyone involved in most cases arising on this side of the harbor — attorneys, prosecutors, law enforcement officers, defendants, witnesses — treks to Norfolk for hearings, trials and search warrants. Between bridges and tunnels, a 20-minue hearing can claim half a day.

We pointed out back in 2002 and 2003 that downtown was the wrong place for a courthouse, because it's inconvenient for most people on the Peninsula. We advocated for an Oyster Point location.

But politics will play out, and downtown is where the courthouse is, even if the court isn't.

Apparently the government didn't get a great deal. It's paying $1.4 million a year to lease a facility that's assessed at $7.2 million. That's full service — including utilities and maintenance — but it still seems dubious. How much electricity and clean-up can a court that doesn't meet require? Over the 15 year term of the lease, the payments will total three time what the building is worth today.

And apparently it leaks, which doesn't endear it to court staff.

But a bad location and a bad roof aren't the reason that justice won't come to us. Credit instead the convenience of the judges, most of whom live on the other side, and of locating court personnel in one place so the workload can be doled out without having to worry about geography.

But what's convenient for judges and what works as justice of a community of half a million people are two different things.